Francesco D'Agostino
Digital Designer

A book of illustrations on Buddhist “Cham” masks

Happiness is the Way!

Services
Project
Client
TL;DR:

Series of illustrations and editorial project for a visual guide to the masks used in Ladakh, India, during Cham dances.

Project

An illustrated guide

While working on a publishing project with the Orient@menti association, I became fascinated by the numerous masks and characters that feature in the annual “Cham” Buddhist dances in Ladakh, India. I therefore decided to study the main characters in order to reproduce them in a guidebook explaining their history and iconography.

After researching the history of the dances, their performance, the entrance sequence and the style of the characters, I created pencil sketches of the main masks. These were then digitised and coloured in.

Accompanied by explanatory texts in English, they are laid out and printed in a hand-bound book with a regenerated leather cover.

Design and digitisation process for Cham mask project illustrations
Detail from Begtse mask

Implementation

The illustrations

Detail of Herucas mask illustration
Detail from Padmavajra mask
Detail from illustration by Lolden Chog
Detail of Cham mask depicting Turdag

Implementation

The book: layout, printing, and binding

Detail of the cover of the book "Masks Dances"
Detail of handmade binding of book on cham masks
Front page of the book Cham masks featuring the title on a lotus flower
Double-page spread with mask illustration and text
Double-page spread
Typography and layout of the book on Cham masks
Yama mask Illustration on an Inside page of the book
Mask Illustration on an Inside page of the book

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